Am I being especially dense, or did I miss a physical description of the
Kra'vak somewhere? I have all the GZG books, but I don't remember seeing a
description of what a Kra'vak looks like (the creature, not a ship). I don't
have More Thrust with me right now as a friend is looking through it, but is
there a description in there?
I vaguely remember a description but I need something more concrete.
> Am I being especially dense, or did I miss a physical description of
I don't remember there being a description of their physical appearence
anywhere, but a friend of mine has the minis for them. They look like the
Predator from the movies of the same name. They actually look very, very cool.
> At 22:05 3/10/98, Allan Goodall wrote:
Current analysis of the Kra'Vak threat is based largely on the following
passages:
< p32, col 2, para 4>
"On a physilogical level, study of remains from combat incidents indicate
that they are carbon/oxygen based forms like ourselves, but do not fall
into any definable terrestrial category of species - they are bipedal
anthropoids exhibiting some characteristics of both mammalian and reptilian
life, though this is actually a gross oversimplification as most of their
bodily systems bear no effective resemblance to our biology."
<p36, col 1, para 3-4>
"Va'Ksha'Voc of the War Family Voc'Tcha (gesundheit!) stood on the Command
deck of his flagship and watched his crew hurrying to ready the ship for
battle. Once again they had caught the aliens unprepared- his screen
showed the largest ship of the Hu'Man still docked against their satellite
station, and the few other vessels were scattered around in nearby orbits in
no better state of readiness. His navigator had done well in cutting their
Overspace exit so close in to the planet, and his subfamily would be rewarded.
Va'Ksha clashed his mandibles in anticipatory pleasure as he imagined the
celebrations of another victory over the dangerous aliens that infested this
region of space...."
So, what do we have? A mammilian/reptilian species that (note the
mandibles) seems to exhibit some insectoid characteristics. The
clan/family
structure also invokes the social structure of insects, but this may be terran
predjudice on my part. Bipedal, oxygen breathers with, somehow, fundamental
body chemistry similar to our own, but at the same time, radically different
in function.
Noting the generally similar size of Kra'Vak and human ships of the same class
and the fact that they are technologically similar to ourselves, they are
presumably roughly the same size as a human... possibly smaller, if entire
subfamilies and clans all travel on the same vessel.
The hard glottal stop between each syllable of their spoken language
(assuming, again, that this represents the whole of their communications
methodology) and the harsh, sharp consonant structure would seem to indicate a
simple vocal arrangement, capable of producing a relatively limited series of
clicks, buzzes and the like, modulated perhaps by the mandibles.
Socially, again, they are clan/family oriented, the second passage
indicating that honor for accomplishment (and presumably shame of failure) is
shared collectively by an individual's subfamily. The bit about 'clashing
mandibles' in anticipation of a victory celebration suggests, perhaps, a feast
of some type... perhaps eating captured prisoners or bodies, maybe even
cannibal ingestion of 'failed' subfamilies. Possibly mandibles are not used
for eating, however...perhaps reproduction? communication? Maybe after a
victory, they all just get together and have a nice talk about the whole
thing.
The authorship of this second passage, however, is deeply suspect, as is the
authenticity of its observations, as it seems unlikely that any
observer (even should he/she survive contact) could accurately know the
thoughts within an alien head.
All conclusions drawn by this preliminary investigation should be considered
incomplete, and likely to be modified as new data comes in.
Frankly, the plasma gunners in the 1/234th didn't leave us a whole lot
to examine.
(signed)
--
Am I being especially dense, or did I miss a physical description of the
Kra'vak somewhere? I have all the GZG books, but I don't remember seeing a
description of what a Kra'vak looks like (the creature, not a ship). I don't
have More Thrust with me right now as a friend is looking through it, but is
there a description in there? I vaguely remember a description but I need
something more concrete.
--
There's a reasonably good, though of course unofficial, story based around the
Kra'Vak at the Unofficial Stargrunt II Web Site.:)
http://nemesis.com.au/fastjax/stargrunt
> Jeremy Sadler wrote:
> --
Paul Owen has done a great job with the online GZG catalog. There are now
pictures of the various Star Grunt figures, including the Kra'Vak.
The SG catalog is at:
http://homepages.enterprise.net/lightspeed/gzg/sg-idx.html
> I don't remember there being a description of their physical appearence
Are they the first or second edition Kra'Vak? There were about 6 figs for a
while that were very Predator. The new catalogue has the first of a redesigned
range, but the photo isn't good enough to make out any fine detail..
TTFN
Jon
There are at least nine 25mm figures in the GZG range to give you a physical
look at one interpretation of the Kra'vak (presumably the 'official' view
since GZG put it out).
For some unofficial information try
http://www.netspace.net.au/~sneakin/expansion/expansion.html
It is part of the propaganda on a campaign being run from Melbourne (thats
Australia just in case someone asks if it is Melbourne, Nebraska) the lad who
is running it has lots of ideas re Kra'vak.
Nic
> At 04:05 AM 3/11/98 GMT, you wrote:
Thanks to all for the info. Much appreciated.